Bank Street Community Design Plan Open House

Here is your chance to have a say in the future development of a major stretch of Bank Street running through three wards. Councillors David Chernushenko, Peter Hume and Maria McRae invite you to attend the first public open house for the Bank Street Community Design Plan (CDP). Presentation is at 7 p.m.

Join your neighbours and help shape the vision, plans and policies for the CDP. For the first open house you will have the chance to review and comment on the existing conditions, development opportunities and other related issues within the study area. City staff and the consulting team will be available to provide information about the process and outcomes of the CDP.

The Study Area: The study area for the CDP extends approximately 3.2 km along Bank Street, from Riverside Drive to the Canadian National railway tracks located south of Walkley Road. The study area includes all of the properties abutting Bank Street within the designated area as well as several adjacent properties.

Need more information? Visit the project website at Ottawa.ca/bank or join the Bank Street CDP e-mail list by contacting the City’s Project Manager, Jillian Savage. We look forward to seeing you on February 16, 2011.

Study of small-scale infill housing in mature neighbourhoods: Public consultations

Are you concerned by the recent flurry of infill projects that are replacing yards and front porches with pavement and garage doors? What would you rather see? The City has conducted a study of recent infill projects for detached, semi-detached, multiple attached dwellings and stacked dwellings in Wards 12, 14, 15 and 17. These wards were selected because they are seeing the largest amount of small-scale infill. Many of the neighbourhoods in these wards were developed pre-war, are well established and have a distinctive character.

The purpose of the survey was to:

determine how the new home fits within the specific context of the street and neighbourhood in which it is built

characterize the infill in order to understand how it contributes to or detracts from the street and neighbourhood

determine if there are any trends in infill construction

determine if steps need to be taken to improve the nature of infill development

The public is invited to provide input on possible solutions at one of the following public meetings:

Thursday, February 17, 7 to 9 pmConnaught Public School (Gym),1149 Gladstone Avenue

Public input will be analyzed and evaluated and the City anticipates hosting one final consultation session at a later date. A report on the issue will be brought to Planning Committee in the spring of 2011.For more information, visit ottawa.ca/infill or contact the City of Ottawa at 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401).

Segregated Bike Lane Pilot Project

Transportation Committee voted in favour of proceeding with the East-West Segregated Bike Lane Pilot Project for Laurier Ave. We saw an impressive show of support for the project from a number of groups, including cycling advocates, community associations and private citizens.

The two-year trial will test lanes a protected lane on each side of Laurier from Elgin to Bronson. Full council is scheduled to vote on this on Feb. 23, and if it passes there the lanes should be in place by summer.

Website RSS feed now available

We're still working on the new website, adding new content, completing the French translation, working out the bugs and streamlining the navigation. The big news is that we've added an RSS feed, so you can opt to receive updates whenever we post new items to the website. Topics of the posts include information about local issues, announcements, media coverage and other items of interest to the residents of Capital Ward.